southpaw

English

WOTD – 30 September 2006

Etymology

From south +‎ paw.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaʊθˌpɔː/
• IPA^(key): /ˈsaʊθˌpɑ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

southpaw (plural southpaws)

1. (informal, idiomatic) One who is left-handed, especially in sports.
   1. (sports) A left-handed pitcher.

      Since home plate is generally in the southwest corner to avoid glare in the batter's eyes, a southpaw's pitching hand is to the south.

Synonyms

• (one who is left-handed): left-hander, lefty

Translations

informal: one who is left-handed

• Bashkir: һулаҡай (hulaqay)
• Basque: ezkerti (eu)
• Finnish: vasuri (fi)
• French: gaucher (fr) m, gauchère (fr) f
• German: Linkshänder (de) m, Linkshänderin (de) f
• Japanese: 左利き (ja) (ひだりきき, hidarikiki)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: mańkut (pl) m, leworęczny (pl) m
• Portuguese: canhoteiro m
• Russian: левша́ (ru) m or f (levšá)
• Spanish: zurdo (es) m, zurda (es) f
• Tagalog: kaliwete (tl)
• Volapük: (♂♀) nedetaskilan, (♂) nedetahiskilan, (♀) nedetajiskilan

baseball: left-handed pitcher

• Finnish: vasuri (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: サウスポー (ja) (さうすぽー, sausupō)

left-handed writer who turns their hand upside down to write

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} linkshandig (nl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kurdish:

Further reading

• “southpaw”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.